When it comes to car stuff and track outings, I'm a pretty good planner. I hesitated to sign up for the BMW Club Tremblant HPDE last weekend because I wasn't sure if the gold Civic would be ready. After Calabogie, it needed the overheating issue fixed and the brake lines repaired. Also, I didn't have any mounted track tires. I decided to register 9 days before the event and got moving. I mounted 5 tires at Canadian Tire (although it took a whole week to get them back!), B.G. fixed the brake lines and replaced the rear brakes, and I changed the radiator myself (no issues there). I even had time to install the Acura leather steering wheel and vacuum the interior. I had my street tires for rain (which was in the forecast) and my track tires if it was dry,
My plan was to sleep in the car at the track to save money, and my tests showed that I could insert a single air mattress into the back of the car and sleep with my feet in the trunk. I managed to fit everything in the car and I left at 5am on Saturday. The drive was uneventful, and while waiting for the gate to open at the track, I even had time to change my tires. By the time the first session began, I had gone through my whole checklist and rolled onto the track. I was taking it easy, even though the track was dry, just to make sure all was in order... it was not. After two laps, the car was overheating again. I couldn't believe it! It had been fine all week and the radiator was new. I pulled in and checked the car over. There was coolant near the bottom of the rad, but no obvious leak. I refilled the car with water and went out again, and it overheated again. I pulled in and someone came and told me the car had been smoking on track. I had the person sit in the car and give gas while I watched, and sure enough, there was white smoke coming out of the exhaust... head gasket leak! I went to Canadian Tire to get some "leak stop" so I could make it home, and that was it as far as driving on the track.
Looking good but going nowhere!
Luckily, my two students were really good, so much so that I recommended them for graduation to the advanced group. I had a lovely dinner at Josée and Guy's camping area in a clearing in the middle of the track. They cooked us up a lovely seafood and sausage dinner. I managed to sleep in the car (not terribly well, but not too badly) and I was authorised to leave for home after lunch, as my students no longer required supervision. On the way home, the water temperature seemed stable, but it suddenly shot up near Mirabel. I stopped to add water, then had to stop again in Laval. It was creeping up again coming through Little Italy, but I made it home without another stop.
Will I be able to replace the head gasket before my summer trip in a month? It seems unlikely. I asked JS, Choo, B.G. and Pat Boyer if they had time, and none of them did. I guess the first part of the track season is over as soon as it began. At least I made it home in one piece, and I'm quite sure that all the effort and time will have been worthwhile, as the gold Civic is fun to drive on the street and should be fun on track as well. But I have to face it: the beautiful, brilliant plan to have a second, simpler, more reliable track car has failed... for now.
By the way, there are more and more GT3's and GT4's in the BMW Club... here is a sampling.
Until the last minute, I was pretty sure the gold Civic (aka the 800$ Civic) would not be ready to take to the Calabogie race school where I instruct every year. I had dropped the at the B.G. Auto with plenty of time for him to align the car, but the lift that went with his alignment machine was broken and they were waiting for a part to repair it. The mechanic finally called on the Wednesday before the school weekend to say the car would be ready Thursday. I was not available to pick the car up until Friday morning, the same Friday I was supposed to leave for Calabogie. There were several little jobs to do before taking the car on track, some of them very important, like making a bar to hold the battery in place. I decided to give it a shot. I got the car home by 9:30 am and wanted to leave before 3:00 pm. The car drove nicely on the way home, but the brake pedal was a bit low, probably because B.G. did not have time to replace my brake hoses and so the brakes were not bled. Otherwise all seemed in order. After changing the winter tires that came with the car for some all-season tires that I had in the basement (already mounted on wheels), I drove around a bit to try to make sure the car was ready for a 600 km road trip, and a few laps of Calabogie. All seemed in order, so I decided to load up the car with a spare wheel and a bunch of tools. I thought the 12v power socket was dead but it was in fact my USB adapter that was broken. I still could not get the cruise control to work, but everything else on the car was functional.
The drive to the track was uneventful, except that I somehow lost the front lip on the highway... that was quite a surprise, as it actually broke off, judging by the piece still screwed into the bumper. The acceleration isn't great, but the handling is excellent and the exhaust is very quiet. The driver's seat comfort level is average, but better than on a 1992 to 2000 Civic.
When I arrived at the track, it was still daylight and I parked with my friend Stephane and his co-driver Martin, who have built a nice Civic EK hatch track car. I had lent them an old Schroth 4-point harness that came with the black Civic coupe I bought last summer (a car that is still very far from being ready) and they had brought it for me. They helped me install it in the gold Civic. The adjustment of the harness is really a bit of a pain, but you only really need to adjust in once for any given driver.
On Saturday morning, I emptied out the car and set up my GoPro camera using an old headrest mount. The resulting camera position turned out to be surprisingly good. At the lunch break, the instructors can drive on the empty track for about 25 minutes. I was wondering what the lap times would be like... I had run a 1:30 flat with the M3 on street tires and a 1:27 with the old Civic on very old race tires. From the beginning, the car felt planted and safe. I forgot to wear my driving gloves and I wasn't loving the rubber-coated OEM steering wheel (or shift knb), but I have a spare leather Acura wheel I can install (and a metal shift knob as well). The Goodyear Eagle tires did not communicate much, as there was no squeal when they were about to let go... only a rumble as they lost grip. It didn't really matter, as I wasn't pushnig that hard. After a couple of laps, I managed a 1:39.1. I was a half-second faster part way into the next lap, but I caught my buddy Pascal driving a Hyundai Accent and got stuck behind him for a few corners. The harness was keeping me pressed into the seat, but I still had to brace myself on the dead pedal to keep my legs in the right place. When I started my next "hot" lap, I noticed the temperature was near the top of the gauge, so I slowed down a lot. I was losing coolant (some went on my rear tire and I had a short slide).
I pulled in and popped the hood: there was coolant all over the engine. It turns out the little hose near the rad cap leading to the overflow had popped off (it had no clamp on it). I had a mini clamp in my track tool bag and re-attached it. As I refilled the rad with water, I could not eliminate all the air bubbles. Steph said just put on the cap and let it pressurize. We did that and we could hear the hiss of a small leak near the top of the rad. That would be the end of track action for this car for the weekend. I hoped it would be OK to drive home (memories of driving hom from Watkins Glen in 2004 with a tiny head gasket leak... and no issues while street driving).
I drove home on Sunday after the school with zero overheating issues and made it home by 8:30 pm. I ordered a replacement radiator (126$) on Monday and on Tuesday, I dropped the car off at B.G. so he could do the brake lines. I checked out my video and was pleasantly surprised with how the headrest clamp placed the camera.
So what's the verdict? Is a slow, sporty car with only coilovers fun to drive on the track? I think it is, and the experiment is a success so far. If the car is reliable and running performance tires, I think it will actually be quite a lot of fun. If all goes well at B.G. and my radiator arrives soon enough, I should be able to hit the track again in 10 days or so, either at Tremblant, Sanair or ICAR. To be continued!
Here is the video:
At home, when I still had my beautiful lip...
I made a patch for the huge hole in the rocker panel near the rear wheel and painted it "Caterpillar" yellow, the closest match to my colour I could find at Canadian Tire
The lip perfectly masked the missing chunk of my bumper
At the track, sans lip
Ready for action
Looks good from a few feet away
After the cooling incident, notice the absorbant powder in front of the car
I'm writing from the waiting area in the emergency room as I accidentally crushed my fingertip working on the country house. The pain has died down with a couple of Tylenol, so I can comfortably type on my phone. I haven't posted in a while because car-wise, there hasn't been much going on. Even though it's Easter weekend, it doesn’t yet feel that Spring-like. It snowed last week and it's been close to zero degrees many nights. The barn door was still partially frozen so I sort of gave up on getting the M3 out of the barn. I'll try again next time we come to the country.
The Subaru is working fine, I just need to have the rear o2 sensor changed by a mechanic as I didn't have enough leverage to get it out on my own. It throws a code almost every time I drive it. I will throw on the summer tires now that I know I won't be driving the M3 in the coming weeks.
I had hoped the yellow Civic would be ready to try on track by now, but there have been a few small setbacks. I had to basically change the whole exhaust line and catalytic converter as it was a total mess under the car, full of bends and cracks and bad welds. The other issue is that JS can't remove the old brake hoses to install the braided ones, because it's all rusted solid. The suspension is on the car and the brakes should be done this weekend. The 40$ lip I bought for the front bumper seems to have successfully masked how broken the bumper cover was. I don't know if the car will be ready to try at the Calabogie school in 2 weeks. If it isn't, I'll take the STi.
Choo told me he can start on the black Civic in the next few days, which is encouraging.
So despite my best efforts, I don't have a usable track car at the beginning of the track season. If all goes well, I will be able to avoid this situation in the future if I can properly manage the two Civics.
I have started using the iRacing simulator to hopefully improve my track driving. The racing is exciting and I am leaning some new tracks. I don't practice a ton though, so I rarely finish better than mid pack. Still, it's quite stimulating.
One project that is moving forward: we made offers on two of the apartments we liked in Genoa and one of them was accepted. We will head back there in June to finalize the deal and set up the apartment, with the goal of putting it up for rent on AirBnB.
There are starting to be some cool cars on the road, but fewer than usual, probably due to the cool weather.
Barn find M3
Yellow Civic still on jack stands
GT4 on Parc Ave.
... and a Maybach
Phoenix Yellow E46 M3
Non STi on STi wheels... nice
Zandvoort blue M2
Turquoise Supra
Rare convertible Volvo
Clean EK Civic on Laurier
Original-looking 240z
Ferrari Roma looks pretty good in all black
Elantra N is still one of my favourite new cars
One of two 944s I saw on the way home from work
Oscar washing the Subaru
U.S. model Civic EX, same as an Si
Nice spec Audi E-Tron GT
I like "steel wheels" on the Defender
Very clean 996
Lovely classic Range Rover
Clean 90s Corolla
Aries at the scrap yard just like my first car, except it's a wagon
